Ajay Tewari, J. - (1.) The above Criminal Revisions have been filed for setting aside the orders whereby applications moved under Sec. 155(2) of the Customs Act, 1962 and the application under Sec. 227 Cr.P.C. filed by the petitioners have been dismissed and charges under Ss. 120 -B, 420, 467, 468, 471, 201 IPC and under Sec. 13(2) read with Sec. 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 have been ordered to be framed.
(2.) Criminal miscellaneous petition bearing CRM -M -10284 -2011 has been filed for quashing of FIR No. RCCHG2009A0019 dated 10.06.2009 qua petitioner, registered at Police Station CBI, ACB, Chandigarh under Ss. 120 -B & 420 IPC, 13(1)(d) read with Sec. 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Sec. 66 of the Information and Technology Act, 2000.
(3.) As per the prosecution, during the year 2008 -09, at Ludhiana, accused Parminder Kumar and Amandeep Singh by entering into a criminal conspiracy with accused KK Sharma and other customs officers, floated non -existent firms namely M/s. SM International, M/s. Aastha Trading and M/s. A.S. International on the basis of forged and fictitious documents viz. forged Import Code (IEC) number, forged identity proof to open bank accounts and forged 213 shipping bills and claimed duty drawbacks to the tune of crores of rupees. Accused Parminder Kumar also forged identity papers of one Sushil Mishra by forging his signatures. Accused customs officers had dishonestly and fraudulently transferred passwords and login ID to the private persons illegally engaged by them to work in the office in order to facilitate dishonest and illegal duty drawbacks by Amandeep Singh and Parminder Kumar. The custom officers had also not physically verified the exporting of goods and their stuffing into the containers for extraneous reasons, committed criminal misconduct as public servants. The FIR No. 19 dated 10.06.2009 has been lodged. The accused namely Jagdeep Singh, who is petitioner No. 3 herein was working as Inspector and other accused persons/petitioners herein were working in their respective posts as Inspectors, whereas Maninder Pal Singh -petitioner No. 6 was working as Examiner, Customs and they remained posted at ICD CONCOR/KCM CFS, Ludhiana for certain period. After completion of investigation, charge -sheet under Sec. 173 Cr.P.C. has been presented against the accused under Ss. 120 -B, 420, 467, 468, 201 IPC and Sec. 13(1)(d) read with Sec. 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Undisputedly, no notice as required under Sec. 155(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 has been issued by the Central Government to the accused/customs officers before launching prosecution against them.;